the ecomoderate

The average american receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year. To make this junk it takes 100 million trees and it creates more than 4 million tons of paper waste every year. Why recycle your junk mail when you can stop it or slow it significantly. Here’s a list of a few companies that can help.  

1. New American Dream offers mail-in forms for a do-it-yourself program where you are asked to complete, print and mail in short letters to major direct mailer firms.
2.  41pounds.org, a non-profit,  will remove 95% of your junk mail by contacting each organization you receive junk mail from. They even donate to your favorite charity.
3. For a $1 charge The Direct Marketing Association will also help you remove the junk in your mailbox.
4. stopthejunkmail.com promises to remove 90% of your junk mail for only $19.95.

Now you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with living a green lifestyle? Well, I’m a firm believer that living a green lifestyle includes taking care of your health, even if it is one step at a time.

I never used to read food labels until I went out to buy tomato sauce and found high fructose corn syrup in just about every can I picked up. I soon became hyper-aware and began my mission of informing anyone that would listen about this horrible sweetener.

Americans consume more sweeteners made from corn than from sugarcane or beets, gulping it down in drinks, frozen food and baked goods. Invented in 1970 to stabilize food prices and support corn production, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) provided a cheaper way to sweeten food. This allowed food producers to pump up the size and amount of sweet snacks and drinks on the market while increasing their profits.

Your body processes the fructose in HFCS differently than it does with sugar cane or beet sugar. HFCS alters the way metabolic-regulating hormones function and forces the liver to kick out more fat into the blood stream. Research in the April 28, 2004 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed a direct correlation between HFCS and the present obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic. The increase of HFCS foods and beverages far exceed the consumption of any other food or food group and in 2000, Americans ate an average of 31 tsp a day of HFCS. That’s more than 15% of our caloric intake!

So be sure to read those labels. HFCS sneaks up on you in many foods such as yogurt (Yoplait, Dannon and kids brands), tomato sauces and canned tomatoes, breads, and many processed foods, especially ones targeted for your kids. Remember, it may seem healthy until you read the food label. It’s up to you, as a consumer, to make better choices for you and your family.